The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family In The New West

"I don’t read a lot of nonfiction because, well, I’m a journalist who works in it full time and I like the escapism of fiction. But John Branch’s portrait of a longtime Mormon ranching and champion rodeo family has all the trappings of a can’t-put-it-down modern Western. Don’t be turned away if you don’t like cows or ranching or rodeos. This is a smart portrayal of a way of life that’s slipping away even in the rural West. The Last Cowboys conveys an almost mythical area that has long been woven tightly in American identity, and there’s a lot in these pages that could help us better understand what’s behind this country’s deepening urban-rural divisions."